Definition of path used by this file:

• it is not Lua path, Lua path meaning the way Lua provide table indexing.
  • especially, 'table[ ]' notation is not supported
• element separator is '.' (dot)
• provided path is always cleaned before being processed:
  • if the path starts and/or ends with one or several dots, there are automatically removed.
    e.g.: '...toto.tutu....' means 'toto.tutu'
  • internal repetitions of successives dots are replaced by a single dot.
    e.g.: 'toto...tutu.tata..foo.bar' means 'toto.tutu.tata.foo.bar'
• if a path element can be converted to a number, then it is returned as a number, otherwise all elements or paths are returned as strings.
  e.g.: split('a.2', 1) -> ('a', 2) (where 2 is returned as a number)
  e.g.: split('a.b.2e3.c', 1) -> ('a', 'b.2000.c')

Type utils.path

Type utils.path

Field(s)

utils.path.clean(path)

Parameter

• path : string containing the path to clean.

Return value

cleaned path as a string.

utils.path.concat(varargs)

Parameter

• varargs : list of strings to concatenate into a valid path

Return value

resulting path as a string

utils.path.find(t, path, force)

Parameters

• t : is the table to look into.
• path : can be either a string (see segments) or an array where path[1] is the root and path[n] is the leaf.
• force : parameter allows to create intermediate tables as specified by the path, if necessary.

Return value

returned values depend on force value:

• if force is false (or nil), find returns the table if it finds one, or it returns nil followed by the subpath that points to non table value

• if force is true, find overwrites or create tables as necessary so it always returns a table.

• if force is 'noowr', find creates tables as necessary but does not overwrite non-table values. So as with force=false, it only returns a table if possible, and nil followed by the path that points to the first neither-table-nor-nil value otherwise.

Usage:

config = {toto={titi={tutu = 5}}}
     find(config, "toto.titi") -- will return the table titi

utils.path.get(t, path)

The field to get is indicated by a path relative to the table.

Parameters

• t : table where to set the value.
• path : can be eiher a string (see split) or an array where path[1] is the root and path[n] is the leaf.

Return values

1. value if the field is found.
2. nil otherthise.

utils.path.gsplit(path)

Parameter

• path : the path as a string

Return value

the for-loop iterator function

utils.path.segments(path)

Parameter

• path : string containing the path to split.

Return value

list of split path elements.

utils.path.set(t, path, value)

Parameters

• t : table where to set the value.
• path : can be either a string (see #utils.path.split) or an array where path[1] is the root and path[n] is the leaf.
• value : the value to set.

utils.path.split(path, n)

If there are less then n segments, returns the path argument followed by an empty path.

If there are less then -n segments, returns an empty path followed by the path argument.

Note that if a half is a single element and that this element can be converted into a number, it is returned as a number.

Parameters

• path : the path as a string
• n : number defining how the path is splitted (see above description).

Return value

the two halves

Usage:

local root, tail = split('a.b.c', 1)
 ->root contains 'a', tail contains 'b.c'